National Health Mission guidelines for health care workers

According to the WHO, primary healthcare is focused at providing care in the community as well as care through the community, the PHC addresses not only individual and family health needs, but also the broader issue of public health and the needs of defined populations.New Delhi: India is at a very crucial stage in its fight against the transmission of coronavirus at community level. In this backdrop, the National Health Mission (NHM) has advised health workers, who are part of the primary health care (PHC) team, to ensure safety for themselves and their families, while performing duties at the forefront....read more

Every Adversity is an Opportunity: COVID-19 Dincharya

• Suddenly you have all the time in the world●Use this time to rethink about your habits and routines and make changes.●Time to slow down and understand the principle of minimum effort and maximum profits ....read more

Coronavirus stayed on surfaces for up to 17 days on Diamond Princess Cruise

Cruise ships often provide a framework for outbreaks of infectious diseases owing to their closed environment, contact between travelers from many countries, and crew transfers between ships.During the initial stages of the pandemic, the Diamond Princess represented the setting of the largest outbreak outside mainland China. ....read more

Collective Consciousness

Consciousness is an energized field of information with powers to do everything in the universe. Collective consciousness is the internet of the collective souls of many people in a group.Collective consciousness is the strongest super power ever available in the universe. As per the Vedic texts, whatever is the intent of collective consciousness will become a reality. Scientifically, collective consciousness is based on the principle of critical mass. Vedic literature has shown it to be 1% of the defined population under study....read more

How Corona Aware Are You

Health Sutras By Dr K K Aggarwal

Keep a distance of 3 feet from a person who is coughing, sneezing or singing.

Healthcare News Monitor

Online medicine firms face delivery challenges

Mint- Salman SH

As India enters shutdown mode to contain the spread of COVID-19, online medicine delivery firms such as 1MG, NetMeds and MedLife have temporarily suspended operations in many cities, after the police roughed up delivery workers, even after e-commerce were classified as an essential service. Several delivery workers have also decided to stay back home after pressure from their families and due to fear of being manhandled by the authorities and police, industry executives and founders told Mint. 1MG, NetMeds and Medlife who occupy the top spot in medicine delivery in India said that they were also forced to cancel and delay orders that were already paid for. Delivery personnel in cities such as Bengaluru, Delhi, Hyderabad, and Gurugrum were also manhandled by cops even after they held valid curfew passes. “Medlife delivery personnel Prakash in Delhi in the Todapur area was bringing back curfew passes and was hit by the cops on the way back to the fulfilment centre. In the process, he was injured and suffered bruises on his face and body. We now also have reports of similar incidents in Bangalore," said Ananth Narayanan, chief executive of MedLife in response to Mint’s emailed queries. “These incidents do have a negative impact on the morale of the workforce, we have witnessed a cut of about 60% in deliveries in the last two days due to such operational hindrances, which also includes supply to our fulfilment centres. We haven’t suspended operations anywhere," added Narayanan.

Chinese firms resume export of pharma inputs to India

The Hindu Business Line- G Naga Sridhar

Ready to provide personal protection equipment tooIn what could be good news for Indian drug makers, the import of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) and other raw materials from China has resumed. Following the outbreak of Covid-19 in China, export of raw materials from that country to India was disrupted as most manufacturers ceased operations. “The import of raw materials from China commenced about 10 days ago and we are now receiving them from all provinces except one,” R Uday Bhaskar, Director-General, Pharmaceutical Export Promotion Council (Pharmexcil), told BusinessLine on Wednesday. India imports about $2.5-billion worth of APIs from China, according to Pharmexcil data. The industry had earlier expressed concern over the disruption of imports from China and said the existing inventory would be adequate to run production for up to three months. A Pharmexcil official said that the resumption of imports was a good development. Logistics concerns: Chinese manufacturers have also conveyed their readiness to supply to India personal protection equipment that will be crucial in fighting the Covid-19 contagion. “We have been approached on this by China only yesterday and are working on it,” he said. However, the state of internal logistics and the inability to move shipments are a concern. Both for import of raw materials from China, and pharma exports, the lockdown has been a challenge, with cancellation of all flights, suspension of operations at ports, and trucks off roads. “Most of the exports have not been lifted from airports and ports from the beginning of this month. Restrictions on pharma exports are also matter of worry for the industry now,” said a senior functionary of a leading Hyderabad-based pharma company.

Coronavirus update: Govt looks for volunteer doctors to fight COVID-19 outbreak

Mint- PTI

The government is looking for volunteer doctors to fight the coronavirus outbreak which has infected over 600 people in the country and has taken more than 19,000 lives across the globe. In a statement posted on Niti Aayogs website on Wednesday, the government appealed to retired government, Armed Forces Medical Services, public sector undertaking or a private doctor to come forward and join the efforts of the government to fight the deadly virus. Those who wish to contribute to this and be a part of this nobel mission to serve the country may register themselves on a link provided on the official website of the Niti Aayog. “The Government of India requests for volunteer doctors who are fit and willing to be available for providing their services in the public health facilities and the training hospitals in the near future. “We appeal to such doctors to come forward at this hour of need. You could also be a retired government, Armed Forces Medical Services, public sector undertaking or a private doctor," the statement said.

Covid-19: When will states run out of beds?

Mint- Arjun Srinivas

As India takes war-like measures to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus (Covid-19), it is important to understand the risk that we face if no mitigating measures are taken to deal with an unprecedented health crisis. If Covid-19 cases keep multiplying at the current rate, and do so for a sustained period, India’s hospitals may be overwhelmed by the end of May, or even sooner in an extreme scenario. Further, some states will reach a point where they will not have enough hospital beds to treat critical Covid-19 patients much sooner than others, notably Kerala, Maharashtra, Delhi and Punjab. To study how states and union territories (UTs) are equipped to deal with the Covid-19 outbreak under six case-growth scenarios, we have developed a basic model that is built on three variables. The first variable is the number of hospital beds. The National Health Profile, 2019, gives the number of public-hospital beds in each state and UT. Since there was no updated state-level dataset for private-hospital beds, we extrapolated these numbers based on the hospitalisation percentages across public sector and private hospitals sourced from a 2017-18 National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) survey (bit.ly/2JcIHc5). Among states, hospitalisation at public facilities (barring childbirth) ranged from 21% in Telangana to 95% in Tripura.